Disclosure: I was given a review copy through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
Something I’ve noticed a lot in Beatles documentaries is the story can be Disneyfied. What does that mean? Well, that it’s watered down, details glossed over, rewritten as a neat little narrative with heroes and villains, and all the nuance is gone. I fear your English teacher may have been right about the fact that movies/film adaptations only tell a fraction of the story compared to books. Books go into way more detail and that’s why there are still people who prefer books.
The Beatles are arguably the most written about classic rock band and that’s for good reason. They’re so influential. They simultaneously were the blueprint and broke the mould. There will never be another band like The Beatles. We’re still talking about them even now and people are still making pilgrimages to London and Liverpool to follow in The Beatles’ footsteps. Paul McCartney recently released The Boys of Dungeon Lane and Ringo Starr recently released Long Long Road. The Beatles are national treasures.
Sixty years ago, The Beatles went on their very last world tour. The fame can be a lot of fun at first, money, jet setting, your name up in lights, the fans adoring you. But it gets old and draining. Fame was like a prison, or maybe being stuck in a tower like Rapunzel, and their movements were tightly restricted while on the road. Although Paul McCartney did manage to escape the confines of the hotel to do a little sightseeing sometimes. The Beatles had had enough by this point and they were growing tired of the same old same old. Eventually you run out of ideas for banter and witty clapbacks to trite interview questions. I interviewed someone who was there for the very last Beatles tour, Don Dannemann of The Cyrkle, great read full of amazing stories, check it out when you have the chance.
I was recently in Liverpool for a photoshoot and my last book review was about a musician who had grown tired and disillusioned from the fame and decided to take a spiritual path, so great timing reading this book. I haven’t changed much from my teenage years, so if it’s about The Beatles I want to watch it or read it!
The pop history telling of The Beatles’ time in the Philippines paints a picture of them arriving in the country as heroes and leaving as villains all because they snubbed First Lady Imelda Marcos’ invitation to come to her party at Malacañang Palace, the Filipino equivalent of The White House. While her husband, President Ferdinand Marcos would go down in history as a dictator, at the time he was well-liked and he had recently been elected President of the Philippines and they were seen as the Philippines’ version of JFK and Jackie. It’s a story of how the press builds up celebrities on a pedestal only to knock them down and revel in it. There’s a nugget of truth in that, but it’s more nuanced. The truth really is that it was a mix of poor communication, presumptuousness, and some entitlement behind that not-so-formal invitation and The Beatles didn’t intentionally snub Imelda Marcos.
While in Tokyo, they got an informal invite asking them if they’d want to go to a party Imelda Marcos was throwing at Malacañang Palace. Brian Epstein was against the idea because they “do not make public appearances” or “go to parties while on tour”. He was advised not to snub Imelda Marcos because it would be an unwise decision. Fair enough about not making a public appearance, The Beatles didn’t have the best time meeting politicians and diplomats in the past and the schedule is packed enough as it is because as soon as they arrived in Manila, they were taken to the Philippine Navy Headquarters for a press conference and then whisked away to a party on a yacht called the MV Marima owned by a wealthy Filipino family the Elizaldes, partying until 4am when they checked into the Manila Hotel to get some sleep before their concerts the following day at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. If the Beatles were to go to Imelda Marcos’ party, it would be a flying visit at best and they’d have to rush to the concert. Meanwhile at the party, the press were prepared for The Beatles to show up. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos’ children were hoping to see them and they never showed up. And then Imelda Marcos goes on TV and cries in hysterics about The Beatles hurting her feelings.
In the end they didn’t go and The Beatles themselves had no idea about this party, it was all an accident!
In case you’re curious about The Beatles’ setlist in Manila, there were a bunch of local opening acts before The Beatles played for 30 minutes: Eddie Reyes & D’Downbeats with D’Cavalcade Dancers (D’Downbeats were Beatles inspired and one of the members, Joey Smith would go on to be in the Japanese rock band Speed, Glue, & Shinki), Dale Adriatico (Frank Sinatra inspired singer and multi-instrumentalist), Wing Duo (made up of Nikki Ross and Angie Yoingco), Pilita Corrales (who had a #1 hit in Australia with the Spanish language song “Come Closer to Me”), Lemons Three, Quartette – Pilita and the Lemons Three, and Reycard Duet.
Which songs did The Beatles play? Here’s their setlist:
- “Rock and Roll Music” (Chuck Berry cover)
- “She’s A Woman”
- “If I Needed Someone”
- “Baby’s In Black”
- “Day Tripper”
- “I Feel Fine”
- “Yesterday”
- “I Wanna Be Your Man”
- “Nowhere Man”
- “Paperback Writer”
- “I’m Down”
Once the shows were over, shit hit the fan and all over the newspapers and TVs were headlines shaming The Beatles for snubbing First Lady Imelda Marcos. This made the public upset and The Beatles needed to make their escape and it got pretty violent at the airport with them being kicked and beaten in the airport.
You can read more about The Beatles in the Philippines here.
Sadly because the Philippines are so underrepresented in Western pop culture and a lot of people in the West don’t know much about the Philippines, a lot of details are lost and the story got flattened and people act like The Philippines all despised The Beatles after their visit. When that’s not the case at all. One thing that’s very true about Filipinos is they love music and they love karaoke. And yes, many Filipinos love rock and roll. In general I’ve found that Asian and Latin American fans are some of the most passionate. Thanks to this book I found out about David Byrne (a big fan of world music) and Fatboy Slim’s album Here Lies Love, which is all about Imelda Marcos. Definitely worth a listen!
The fittingly titled You Won’t See Me: When The Beatles Ghosted Imelda tells the story from start to finish with lots of context, insight, and information on Filipino history throughout about The Beatles 1966 visit to Manila. So don’t be afraid to pick up this book if you don’t know much about Filipino history. There are moments of joy like seeing Filipino fans happy to see The Beatles in their country and a lucky few fans making their way into the Manila Hotel to see The Beatles (you certainly can’t do this today!) and Paul McCartney buying a pre-fame BenCab painting “Fishing in Sexmoan”, but there are a lot of moments of fear such as The Beatles seeing so many guns and wondering if The Philippines are at war and the fallout the day after the concert, where they had little security when leaving the country and had to basically fend for themselves and run for their lives. Definitely a rollercoaster of a story that you won’t want to stop reading!
Author David Guerrero was born in England to a Filipino father and a British mother and is now based in Manila. He presented a BBC World Service programme called “When the Beatles Didn’t Meet Imelda”. This book is organised and well researched and has quotes from people who were there: fans and people who worked behind the scenes, so you get a lot of points of view. There are a few photos and scans of memorabilia and I wish there had been some more.
It’s a quick read about a chaotic 48 hours in Beatles history and I like hearing about less discussed stories as opposed to the ones covered to death. I like specific books with a unique angle. Well done!
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